just a spoonfull of sugar makes the medicine go down — unless you are an Alabama fan who recently named his new son, Krimson Tyde; or unless you are Charles Eimers, who drove down to Key West after he retired, to see if he wanted to live here, only to be profiled by city police as a homeless bum and he died shortly thereafter underneath their not exactly thin blue line; or unless you are a lover of marijuana, Venus de Milo and nude and painted bodies in Key West; or unless you are Hatman, who was sentenced yesterday for the vicious crime of living in his van in Key West, the city of the One Human Family not joke – try Havana, it’s probably a lot safer

i gave up in 3rd qtr. i just want ala to win by 7 or 10. not get beat down. Guess u right god bet on Oklahoma. horrible.

I replied this morning:

Hi, Mike –

I left Jack Flats at end of first half, figuring that was the Tide’s only chance, if my rooting for them was causing a jinx. They turned the ball over three times in first half, which Oklahoma converted to touch downs. The Tide defense as not up to the Sooners’ fast no huddle offense in the first half. The Sooner quarterback was terrific in the first half. What? Oklahoma beat Alabama by what Alabama was supposed to beat Oklahoma by Las Vegas odds? I told the angels yesterday afternoon, if God was really trying to send a message about how Alabama dealt with the Florida State quarterback rape allegations, then a good way to do it would be for Oklahoma to beat up on Alabama. As I said, I left at half-time because I figured it was the Tide’s only chance. No chance, it turned out. God reversed the Las Vegas point spread. Pretty loud message, as far as I am concerned.

I told the angels as I rode my bicycle out to Higgs Beach, that I need to get over being a Tide fan, it’s too important to me; and Nick Saban and his players don’t need me mixed up in their affairs, and I don’t need to be living vicariously through them, like so many Alabama fans do, as if their very well being depends on how Alabama does.

Got a call from my first’s wife’s older brother out of the blue, as I pedaled out to Higgs Beach. We talked about an hour. He called because he was watching the game, he lives in Texas, hates Oklahoma, always has liked the Tide, Texas and Tennessee, he’s from Memphis. Maybe he was sent by God to help me get my mind off the game. It was good to hear from him, we were close back in the day. His sister, mother of my daughters, may still think I’m the devil. He didn’t seem to think I am the devil. We laughed a lot. He said he wanted to get back on my daily raving hit list. I said that was proof he is crazy. He laughed.

A yahoo in Alabama recently named his new son Krimson Tyde, I was told recently, then I saw a Huffington Post article about it. I bet the yahoo ain’t feeling too swell about that today. What a mean, stupid thing to do to a kid. What if the kid grows up hating football? What if the kid grows up loving football but hating Alabama because of what his father named him, and he’s a high school all-American quarterback, so he signs with Auburn just to get even with his father? What if the kid turns out gay and becomes a hair dresser? Or a city commissioner? Or President of the US? Or homeless?

I told my old brother-in-law, if I were Nick Saban, I would not ever consider coaching at another school, or in the pros again. I would simply retire, get a new life, work on my golf game, get on the speaker’s tour and get paid $100,000 a pop to show up and speak for 30 minutes, become a TV sports analyst. Imagine the pressure Saban is under, not to have good, or even great teams, but to win the national championship every year. That’s what Krimson Tyde fans expect from Saban and his teams every year. Well, God seemed inclined to say something about that, too, this year.

Now remains to be seen what God has to say about the Auburn-Florida State game.

Did you check out the Thanksgiving Day massacre story in the blue paper yet today? Not pretty. Understatement. Nothing in the Citizen, of course. Arnaud Girard’s lead-in editorial cartoon is really uplifting, too.

Re all us mainstream people using recreational drugs other than alcohol: the Girards must know different people than I do! Other than an occasional wiff of pot (which as a longtime supporter of NORML I strongly believe should be treated–and regulated and taxed–just like alcohol), I know of no one among my mainstream colleagues, friends or acquaintances using the bad stuff. Not in my presence, anyway, and I go to lots of parties.

Seriously, why is our government so blind? There’s major money to be made taxing pot (local, state and national) and offering tourists a local naturist beach that could be spent on important things like food for hungry children, health care for the needy, repairing Douglass Gym–you name it. Re the beach, it’s clearly the Puritan influence: bare bodies=sex=sin. Not so! Is Venus de Milo a turn on? The Venus of Willendorf?? Most people, it seems, have confused nudity with lasciviousness–their wrong thinking. Good heavens, who could be turned on by the Fantasy Fest out-of-shape exhibitionists? I think they’re funny and/or sad–and the ones who display the artistry well are beautiful. But whomever they are–it’s not my place to judge them (however difficult that may be!).

End of rant! Goodnight!

I replied this morning:

I did not write that all mainstream people use drugs recreationally; I wrote that Arnaud and Naja said most of the people they know do that, perhaps I should have narrowed that down to most of the people they know well. It was said in the context of my saying many homeless people cannot be rehabilitated, if they are still using, or drinking, twiddly dee, twiddly dum, and Arnaud said that does’t stop most of the people they know from getting along okay in mainstream, making enough money, etc.

My experiences with you, Connie, you are inclined not to see what you do not want to see in people you care about, me excepted, of course :-). Our police chief, Donie Lee,

seems to be getting himself stuck even deeper in a tar baby, which seems to be stinking more and more to high heaven. As popular and liked as Donie is in Key West, he may not come out of this well, or at all (as in, keeping his job), unless he makes a clear and aggressive effort to get everything about the dead Thanksgiving Day tourist case into the bright sunshine. Today’s blue paper article on that, nothing on that from your good friends at the Citizen, might be the most disturbing yet of the now four blue paper articles. Check it out, if you want to get sick to your stomach.

I agree, and have said for decades, that marijuana should be legalized and taxed like the two truly destructive main drugs of Americans’ choice, booze and tobacco. To criminalize marijuana,

while those two known killers were legal and venerated, was rank hypocrisy. Imagine the money taxing marijuana production and sales would provide for the US and state treasuries. Imagine all the federal and state DEA agents who would be put on workmen’s compensation, maybe on the homeless rolls. Well maybe not. Cocaine, crack, meth, ecstasy, and God only knows what else are doing very well in America. A sure sign Americans who use same, and booze, and tobacco, are not doing very well. Without their ongoing “soma” fixes, how would they cope, get by, not come unglued, like homeless people? I sort of doubt, though, that marijuana tax revenues would be used to help the folks who need help – imagine all the weapons the US Military could buy with all that drug money

The folks in Key West who are all upset about Fantasy Fest and painted bodies, forget how upset they would be if Key West had a nude beach, are deeply disturbed people, mostly thanks to repressive (Puritan) religious training, which you figured in yours. As much as many of them like quoting the Bible to justify everything and anything they do or think, Genesis plainly states that God made Adam and Eve naked, and Adam and Eve then made themselves fig leaves, which God had nothing to do with; and ever since, being naked has been evil, even though God didn’t think Adam and Eve being naked made them evil.

Evil is being made naked in the Thanksgiving Day massacre case, thanks to Arnaud and Naja Girard, and their sources.

Evil already is naked in the Duval Street sex trade corridor.

Evil already is naked in the Duval Street drunk trade corridor.

Fantasy Fest and a nude beach are a Southern Baptist Convention revival in comparison to those three evils.

Surely, you don’t hold out hope that Puritans will ever admire the Venus de Milo, at least not when they think anyone else is watching them do it?

Meanwhile,

Hatman’s sentencing by Judge Miller was yesterday, for being found guilty of lodging in his vehicle. I was up in Marathon yesterday and asked Hatman to let me know how that turned out. I have not heard from him. I hope he is not in the county jail for living in his home, which is his van, the only home he can afford. It even has a solar panel. His personal address on his driver’s license, issued by the State of Florida, is his license tag on his van.

After reading the blue paper article today, I sort of doubt you will have any doubt that the reason Charles Emiers died under Key West’s blue line Thanksgiving Day, on South Beach, was because he was thought to be homeless.

Looks like a great “60 Minutes” feature in the making, don’t you think? Wonder how may city officials would agree to be interviewed for that show? Wonder how many city officials have expressed any public concern for what happened to Charles Eimers,

who drove down to Key West after he retired, to see if he wanted to make it his home, and he died the next day after being profiled by police as being yet another homeless bum in the city of One Human Family not joke.

Just after this post went up, Hatman sent this email, KOTS is Key West City’s overnight homeless shelter.

hi Sloan. by reading this you at least know I’m not doing time, but miller did hit me w/ $200 fine, $228 court costs, + $90 in costs to KWPD and the city so total =$518. Ramsingh told judge I had displayed a long simmering contempt for law and order, and against the city in particular and thus argued for at least 30 days jail. I told miller his written ruling finding me guilty was wrong because1. the DVD the cops made that night clearly shows I was not belligerent, etc. 2. And I did not live in my vehicle “voluntarily”. Since my Soc. Sec. check was so small, I challenged him to find a place to live in KW for less than $600 mo. and then even if he did that I still wouldn’t have any $$ to buy food or other needed items. 3. And in response to his statement that I had not availed myself of KOTS, I pointed out that the law doesn’t have any time restrictions, that anyone including me could be arrested at 8am, 12 noon, or 4pm for “lodging” and KOTS is NOT open during those hours.4. and his assertion that I am NOT poor was false as I do not own 3 other vehicles, that I don’t have a fleet of vehicles that I rent out, etc He wasn’t listening; you could see it in his posture and demeanor. So now I have to contemplate the possibility of an appeal.

Rodd

About Sloan

Darn, that would take a while. Try the autobiographical pages in the header. Ditto for header menu pages at www.goodmorningbirmingham.com. Hatched and raised there, eventually I ran away from home.
Here's a short list: Born 1942; male; single; accused of all sorts of imaginable and unimaginable things, perhaps some true. Live on Key West of Weird asteroid. Publish something most days on this website, been at that since July 2007. That's heaps of catch-up reading, probably not recommended.